KalPa#Retired numbers

{{short description|Ice hockey club in Kuopio, Finland}}

{{About|the Finnish hockey team|other uses|Kalpa (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox ice hockey team

| team = KalPa

| colour = background:#FFFFFF; border-top:#000000 5px solid; border-bottom:#fdcb00 5px solid;

| colour text = #000000

| logo = KalPa logo.svg

| logosize = 190px

| city = Kuopio

| league = Liiga

| conference =

| division =

| founded = {{Start date|1929}}

| operated =

| folded =

| arena = Olvi Areena

| capacity = 5,300

| colours = Black, gold
{{color box|#000000}} {{color box|#fdcb00}}

| coach = Petri Karjalainen

| captain = Tuomas Kiiskinen

| affiliates = IPK

| parentclub =

| farmclub =

| championships = 2025

| website = {{URL|https://kalpa.fi/}}

| uniform =150px

}}

Kalevan Pallo (KalPa) is a professional ice hockey team which competes in the Finnish Liiga. They play in Kuopio, Finland at the Olvi Areena.

Team history

Established in 1929 as Sortavalan Palloseura in Sortavala, the club relocated to Kuopio in 1945 after its original hometown had been annexed by the Soviet Union. During its Sortavala years, the club was not active in ice hockey, but competed in association football, bandy, and pesäpallo instead. Ice hockey was introduced in 1947, and in 1956 KalPa officially replaced the more traditional Kuopio club KuPS in that sport thus specializing in hockey – minor league football was still continued until 1974 as a farm team of sorts for KuPS.

The full name of the company that runs the representative team today is KalPa Hockey Oy. The majority of the company is owned by former NHL players Sami Kapanen and Kimmo Timonen. Kapanen is the majority owner, controlling 50.5% of the franchise. Timonen owns 8%, while Timonen's former teammate Scott Hartnell owns 5%. Hartnell purchased a minority share of the team after getting financial advice from Kimmo Timonen during a road trip to Boston.

During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, Timonen, Kapanen, and fellow NHL player Adam Hall were playing for KalPa. After winning the Mestis championship, KalPa returned to SM-liiga for the 2005–06 season, after being relegated six years earlier in 1999.

KalPa has won a total of four medals in Liiga: a gold in the 2024–25 season, silvers in the 1990–91 and 2016–17 seasons and a bronze in the 2008–09 season.{{Cite web |date=2025-05-03 |title=Historiallinen Suomen mestaruus Kuopioon ja KalPalle – kuuluisan kiekkosuvun jäsen äimän käkenä Ylelle |url=https://yle.fi/a/74-20159548 |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=Yle Urheilu |language=fi}}{{Cite web |title=KalPa vei kiekkopronssit - Ässät ratkaisi toisessa jatkoerässä |url=https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/kalpa-vei-kiekkopronssit-assat-ratkaisi-toisessa-jatkoerassa/3777746 |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=mtvuutiset.fi |language=fi}} KalPa has also won the Spengler Cup, in 2018.{{Cite web |title=KalPa Kuopio Makes History as First Finnish Team to Win Spengler Cup in Thrilling Shoot-Out Victory |url=https://www.spenglercup.ch/en/news/kalpa-kuopio-triumphs-dramatic-shoot-out |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=www.spenglercup.ch |language=en}}

Honors

=SM-liiga=

=Mestis=

=Finnish Liiga A-juniors (U20)=

  • {{gold1}} Finnish Liiga A-juniors (U20): 2007–08, 2017–18

=[[Spengler Cup]]=

Players

=Current roster=

{{KalPa roster

}}

=Honored members=

=NHL alumni=

File:Kapanen Sami KalPa 2009 1.jpg]]

References

{{reflist}}